MARKETWATCH: Integra Type R sold for $58,000

What if I told in you in 1997 that you could buy an Acura Integra Type R, store it in a garage for 21 years, and put only 1,191 miles on it during that time, and make about $34,000 in profit? Would that be worth it to you? Because at a Barrett-Jackson auction this week, that’s exactly what happened.

Here’s a live feed of that video. The bidding ended at $58,000, but once you add in the auction house fees, it’s more like $63,800. Is this insanity or a harbinger of things to come?

The car market is always a touch volatile and ALWAYS dependent on broader economics.
If the economy tanks, don’t expect to see a repeat performance for a while (**cough, cough…trade war**). Not to mention, that car was a freakishly low-mileage, unicorn.

Also, anticipate the USDM model prices plateauing once the JDM Type Rs are (25 year) legal here. At that point, the JDM cars will set the bar in regards to pricing.

Based on recent results on BringATrailer for nice ITRs, this price doesn’t really surprise me and is probably roughly in line with where the market is on these. But the super low mileage is the key.

So, if you put $24,000 on the Dow Jones Industrial Average in 1978 (which you can do these days with an index fund) you would now have over $70,000 , or $46,000 in profit. So even a low mileage future collectible probably isn’t the best of investments. Buy a JNC because you love it, not as an investment.

I believe this is more of a harbinger of things to come. Remember 30 years ago this was happening with muscle cars, people said a convertible 4 on the floor plum crazy purple hemi cuda wouldn’t ever be a 6 figure car and that sort of thing exists.

The difference being that Japanese cars seem to bridge a gap that muscle cars never really could and they have mass appeal outside of America.